1. 10.1 Early Ideas About Evolution

2. What is evolution?
Evolution is the process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors.
Evolution is a central theme in all fields of biology today.

5. Charles Darwin
Natural selection was the theory he proposed to explain evolution.
He attempted to provide reasons for the biological diversity on Earth.
However, Darwin was not the first scientist to study evolution.

6. 4 Scientists before Darwin…
Carolus Linnaeus
Georges Buffon
Erasmus Darwin
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

7. Carolus Linnaeus
In the 1700s, he developed a classification system to help organize all types of organisms into categories based on their similarities.
Scientists still use his classification system today.

8. Georges Buffon
He proposed that species shared ancestors rather than arising separately.
Species is a group of organisms so similar to one another that they can reproduce and have fertile offspring.

9. Erasmus Darwin Charles Darwin’s grandfather
Proposed that all living things were descended from a common ancestor and that more-complex forms developed from less-complex forms

10. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
He believed that species evolved into different forms rather than becoming extinct…flawed idea!

11. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
He proposed the idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics:
changes in an environment caused an organism’s behavior to change
this would lead to greater use or disuse of a structure or organ.
the structure would become larger or smaller and would then be passed down to offspring
For example: giraffes’ long necks

13. So….
Darwin based his studies on the work of these four men and developed his theory known as evolution by natural selection.